To all y’all who entered a giveaway last week for a chance to win Junk Gypsy Swag … the waiting is over!
So who do the Junk Gypsies get jiggy with at their JuNK-o-RAMA prom?
Why, the stunning and talented … Miranda Lambert!
So I gathered all of your answers, put them in my Junk Gypsy bucket, turned my back for a second … and look who came to help …
Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could do something simple like change your attitude for a weekend and it might change the world we live in for the better?
Earth. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; NASA
Of course, there’s a long list of things we can be doing to improve our world, but what about three whole days of no blame? Meaning, for three days we won’t find fault in anyone, including ourselves. Because, really, does it actually matter whose fault something is? If everyone is willing to fix the problem, then what does it matter how it happened? This weekend is all about putting our energies into fixing and finding solutions as opposed to blaming and finding fault.
I like this notion. I like to think that a change in my attitude for a few days could really encourage others to change theirs. Why not? Worth a try? The least it can do is give me perspective, which never hurt anyone, that’s for sure!
If you’re intrigued, visit www.weekendofnoblame.info.
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Nicole Christensen!!!
Nicole Christensen (Texdane, #1155) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning a Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert Level Heirlooms Forever Merit Badge!
“For my gardening season 2012, several friends gave me heirloom plants, including different varieties of tomatoes, herbs, and flowers. I read the book Gardening with Heirloom Seeds by Lynn Coulter, and was introduced to several heirloom seed catalogs by my dad’s wife, Karen, and my friend, Valerie. I marveled how beautiful the heirloom plants were growing in my garden, and wondered how many people before me had the same beautiful plants. (Prior to these heirloom varieties, my seeds have been organic in the veggie bed).
Seed saving always seemed like it would be difficult before, but I was very inspired by some of the beautiful heirloom varieties of plants I was given by some good friends, including some farm sisters! At the end of the season 2012, I learned how to save seeds, using seedsavers.org as a guide.
Fingers crossed!
Here’s a nifty idea hatched on the East Coast that I hope will soon head its wagons west …
Greenbean Recycle (or “GB Recycle,” as all the cool kids call it) is an innovative approach to keeping cans and bottles—both plastic and glass—out of garbage cans.
Image by Benoit Rochon via Wikimedia Commons
The gist:
The Greenbean machine will happily keep tabs on recycling competitions between you and friends, too.
Photo by Jarrod Jones, MIT Department of Facilities
“When users see their names on a leader board, they are more engaged to come and continue recycling,” says inventor Shanker Sahai. “Recycling is a boring chore and sometimes you don’t know how your effort makes a difference or even if it is recycled and re-used, so by showing a user that even one bottle or can makes a difference in real time, the user is encouraged to keep recycling.”
And, hey, the Greenbean makes fun crushing sounds.
The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,518 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—7,301 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ
Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …
For this week’s Each Other/Languages/Culture Merit Badge (Level Two … you heard it here first!) I brushed off my American Sign Language skills. They had gotten slightly rusty from disuse, but since all I had learned earning my Beginning Level Badge was the Alphabet and how to count to 10, it didn’t take long to jog my memory.
I had recently connected with a girlfriend—a Sister, if you will—who was learning sign language too, so we decided to meet for coffee and earn the next level together.
Solidarity, sisters!
That’s where it’s at.
And if there’s a grande, full-fat mocha with a shot of caramel, a drizzle of hazelnut, whipped cream, and a scone involved, then that’s where I’m at!
I am so very pleased to announce our Farmgirl Sister of the Year! Meet Karen Price. Karen has been a Sisterhood member for five straight years, but this is the first year she’s applied for Merit Badges because, as she puts it, “I recently changed my occupation to allow for more fun stuff.” Karen has gone after some of the more difficult badges—like Entrepreneurial Expert, Ink Slinger Expert, and Farmgirl Spirit Expert—that require extra effort and have a net positive affect on the world.
Karen spent 18 years as a Methodist Minister throughout Michigan before settling in Fenton, Michigan, two years ago. Read her wonderful blog here.
Karen and 10 other women comprise the Dandelion Farmgirl Chapter. They’ve been meeting once per month for the past four years. “We usually make or create something. We’re very hands on, things like ‘puttin’ up a swap’ or canning or crafting. For our last meeting, we made terrariums.” Karen says she loves a good swap and has been active in the swaps on our Farmgirl Connection chatroom.
We couldn’t help but fall even more in love with Karen when we found out she fought for a change to local ordinances in her hometown to allow for backyard chickens. You can read about it here. She showed up at the city council meeting in a chicken-embellished dress. Walking around the room, she pulled white plastic eggs from her chicken purse, asking those in attendance, “Have you hugged a chicken today?”
Successful in her attempt to change the law, her hens Cagney and Lacey are now members of her family. (Stay tuned for the Oct-Nov “Turning the Page” issue of MaryJanesFarm, where our Urban Homesteader will give you tips on how to change the zoning laws in your community.)
Let’s give Karen a loud and raucous round of clucking!!!!!!
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
